Out of the frying pan

This is our old place in Spain. No, not the big place at the top; ours was the grey-fronted house fourth from the bottom of the street, which used to run from the riera up to the castle but these days is cut off by a busy trunk road. It's not this sunny all of the time, just most of the time... it's south facing, so even during winter the sun hits the whole row all day long.

We've been gone just over 2 weeks and it's still hard to believe we don't live there any more. I guess the knowledge that we we'll be back soon for a visit stops us missing it so much, although Elly (to use the English spelling she chose) does keep asking longingly after her school friends. We look at photos of them on the computer, which seems to help a lot, and tomorrow is her first day at her new school, so she'll have a whole bunch more friends in no time. We hit really lucky with it: just round the corner and very highly-rated, it's one of those quintessential single-storey, red brick places with white panelled windows. They had two vacancies in Reception and might even have some cover work for Nik.

Come to mention it, the whole life-in-a-northern-town experience is treating us pretty well all round. Still not properly used to pasteurised milk, something called "pub grub", biting easterly winds or seeing the postman every day, but all these things are really very agreeable. Yes, even the wind & the cold; I'd forgotten how fresh and clean the air gets up here. It's kind of rural in much the same way as Canyelles, with lots of wild and wonderful space between neighbouring villages. The freezing misty mornings of our first week have given way to blustery, showery days with only fleeting glimpses of sunshine, but it's really atmospheric and the skies somehow manage to be oppressively dull and endlessly fascinating at the same time. So far, the novelty hasn't worn off in the slightest, although recent reunions with haddock and chips, clotted cream scones and Old Speckled Hen probably have a lot to do with that. I'll most likely calm down soon and try them in separate containers.

One thing is the same as ever: it takes an obscene amount of time to get a broadband connection. It's taken so long to post this... almost 2am and I just know I'll be here another hour trying coax my dialup to upload it. Frying pan, fire...